Peter Stokkebye Luxury Twist Flake (No. 402)

If there was an award for best looking tobacco, this would surely be a shoe-in. I like holding these flakes in my hand and staring at them. My wife thinks I'm weird too. Anyway, great smoke with a pretty heavy topping that borders on being over the top. It pushes the limits for me on that level, but stops at a very pleasant sweet complexity. The flakes roll up nicely and splay at the end for an excellent burn. They rub out to nice fine ribbons, but I usually prefer the roll and stuff method, which seems to preserve the sweet vanilla notes better. This is best smoked without relights in my opinion as the flavor drops considerably.

Update: I have been smoking this tobacco daily and it has become a favorite. I find the sweet aromatic notes to be extremely pleasant while still providing a good tobacco experience in the traditional sense.

A sweet, fairly aromatic Virginia cavendish that provides some tart and tangy, acidic citrus, hay, grass, mild wood, bread, and earth. It's fairly creamy with a light fruity, sugary caramel topping that's a bit on the perfumy side. I sense a dab of coconut and vanilla as well. The toppings moderately sublimate the tobaccos. The strength is in the center of mild to medium, while the taste is a couple of steps past that mark. The nic-hit is a couple of slots past the mild mark. Can get a little warm on the tongue if puffed fast, but won't bite. An easily broken apart flake that burns fairly cool and very clean at a reasonable rate with a very consistent sweet and floral, perfume flavor that translates to the lingering after taste and room note. Requires a few relights, and leaves very little moisture at the finish. Can be a starter Virginia aromatic for those looking to break away from straight Virginias. Not really an all day smoke due to the perfume essence.

-JimInks

First off, the tin note is extraordinary. The high notes of vanilla, honey and hay overlap deeper notes of roasted malt and black tea. And this makes for a very sweet and natural scent that I can't find in any other Virginia flake I've had to date. However, this gave me the suspicion that there was a casing of some sort on the tobacco, and it made me nervous to say the least.

The presentation of this tobacco is nothing short of mesmerizing. I could stare at a single flake for several minutes and still be impressed. However, it came a little moist (as is par for the course for Stokkebye) but that was an easy fix. I just left it out for 45 minutes, and voila, great moisture for an easy smoke.

But on to the important bit, how it smokes. And that is where many smokers disagree. Let me be the first to say that this is not the traditional Virginia, so don't expect that from this tobacco. It's obvious that this is a twist on a Navy flake (no pun intended), and has a slight casing (and yes I do mean slight, not foul and overbearing like many reviewers say) of what I detect to be honey, but I may very well be wrong. It's definitely not a rum casing that is found on traditional Navy flakes.

On the initial light is where the flavor is strongest. Toasted bread with butter and brown sugar is the taste I get. Honey and molasses are present as well. The strength of the flavor and aroma may be what put many Virginia lovers at bay, and may have deterred them from giving this blend what it deserves: a full bowl smoked cool and clean.

As you progress more in the bowl, the flavor deepens and broadens and becomes very pleasant. Sweet English tea notes lay beneath high honey and chocolate notes, and this makes for a very cozy smoke. As the bowl progresses, notes of vanilla and raisin start coming in and intermingling with deeper notes of almond and french toast. Keep in mind, this is not an aromatic, and all of these notes taste organic and natural, not syrupy or overbearing.

Overall, while not what you'd expect from Stokkebye's description, it is still a top-notch blend that would be enjoyable by the most discerning pipe smoker. All it takes is an open mind. Side note: this blend does taste a little young, so I can only imagine that it will ripen with age.

As with the LNF, this was a small sample received from a friend. I wasn't quite as taken with this one as I was LNF, but this is still a very worthy VA. Beautiful presentation - almost artistic.

Very well behaved VA which is lighter on the citrus but with some added sweet casing. The casing was not intrusive but I would like to try this without it. Even so, this was a good tasting flake, easy to prepare, and with no faults. I prefer stronger VA's as a rule but this was a fine smoke with decent complexity that really shone during the last 1/4 bowl or so. Then it became expansive and richer.

Recommending this one, as with LNF and LBF, is a no-brainer. Some folks may prefer other VA's but there is nothing to dislike here. I may buy some more and play around with some additional blending tobaccos, as this has a very solid base.

Only average for me due to the weakness of strength and taste. Still, if you enjoy sweeter, milder Virginia tobacco, then you might personally enjoy this one better than I.

The leaf is of great quality but it does have a tendency to burn hot if not smoked very slowly. I also believe there to be some sort of sweetner added to the Cavendish but would not bet my life on it.

Similar in some respects tastewise to Astley's #109.

Peter Stokkebye - Luxury Twist Flake.

I'm slightly surprised that up until now (05/07/16) this has had 33 two star, or less ratings. Okay, it's not the best blend I've piped, but I think it's a good smoke!

Pre-light, the blend reminds me of W.O. Larsen #32 Curly: wavy flakes. As its from bulk the moisture's good, so I fill and light straight away: there's no need for drying time.

It lights easily and gives a pleasant smoke: there is a honey sweetness from the Cavendish process, but there's also a kind of oat/bread-like embellishment: it tastes really 'Homely'. It actually seems, to me, as though it contains a small proportion of Burley and this could be responsible for the oatiness.

I can smoke an entire bowl without the slightest bit of tongue-bite, and the smoke is about the perfect temperature.

I find the nicotine just below medium, and the room-note very pleasant.

Like I said, I think this is good. It wouldn't get a spot in my favourites list, but it still gets its first 'highly recommended'!

Four stars.

I like this one. A nice simple Virginia with a light pleasant topping in a most amazingly complicated looking flake. The looks of the flake make it a wonderful tobacco to take with you on the run as the very shape and appearance of these squares will leave onlookers spellbound. They will ask how is that done? You will respond, Hell if I know. lol

Stokkebye puts out great Virginias and their luxury line is no exception. The trio is a bargain, particularly for what you are getting. I highly recommend having jars of each stashed in any cellar. They are both distinct and this one would be the aromatic option. The topping, to me, is a light honey type topping that is very complimentary to the taste of the bright Virginias.

I bought a pound of this a few years ago. I put away a couple of ounces that I intend to age and just finished the rest yesterday. I got a feeling this will be really special with 10 years on it. I am giving this three stars, but am very close to four stars on it. It is good.

Looks nice, distinctive. Wonderful squares of twisted tobacco, mesmerizing grain. Doesn't bite. Burns well. Wow. Remarkable in its neutrality. No nicotine kick. Flavorful as a nice tall glass of water. Terribly bland. Criminally bland. Beans and cheese on toast. Rock soup, garnished with celery. Steamed vegetables. Bill Cosby funny. A minivan. Saltine crackers. CSPAN. Movie theater popcorn without butter or salt. Captain Janeway. Watching snails race across the pavement. Ideal for people without a tongue. Makes Captain Black seem like 965. Powerful, powerfully boring. Retirement home happy. Socks for Christmas. 1980s Volvo. Consecutive Powerpoint presentations. On economics. At gunpoint. Fresh air in a closed room. The most uninteresting tobacco in the world.

I found this one a very good smoke, similar to PS-Navy Flake, with perhaps a sweeter aftertaste due to the absence of Perique. But in many ways it resembles its near cousin in that smooth, pleasant and distinguished flavour. It burns very well, it has all the quality of good Virginia leaf (even if some of it comes from Zimbabwe), and the cut helps to preserve it fresh. It is not a moist tobacco, but its natural oils and juices provide a rich yet discreet savour that personally I find very agreeable. It is easy to pack and light and burns slowly. The Cavendish process seems to round up the flavours of the different Virginias, and gives the whole tobacco a light brown hue with some birdseye. The aroma is very civilised. Non smokers don?t seem to complaint, though they don?t tend to get specially excited by its smell?Again, plain smoking tobacco, uncomplicated, very enjoyable and virtually no tongue bite. There seems to be no mystery in these blends (Navy Flake included), as if they were not intended to grasp your senses and taste buds in a symphony of contrasts and hidden treasures. Basically, an honest all day smoke (in my case happily accepted at work), designed to keep you happy. A good change of pace, leaving the more complex tobaccos for the evening.

As with the Navy Flake, since I already posted a detailed review of the PS Luxury Bullseye Flake, I’ll limit myself here again to a side by side comparison with the LNF & LBF.

The PS LTF is a stunningly beautiful med-sized twist flake. Whereas the base of the LBF seems to be predominantly bright virginas mixed with a generous dose of perique, and the LNF seems to be virginias that have been matured and flue cured to enhance their natural sweetness (plus a little perique for balance), the base here seems to be a blend of virginias that were pressed, twisted, and run through the cavendish process. Although not officially listed, I believe a modest caramel topping was added as well, which brings us into the shallow end of aromatic territory.

For me, this is a 3 star tobacco whose smoking experience didn’t quite measure up to its visual beauty. The why behind that needs some explanation, so bear with me.

Although the modest aromatic topping makes this flake smell sweeter than the LNF, the cavendish process they used seems to have robbed this tobacco of some of its oomph. While it brought out and partially transformed some of the sweetness present, and gave it some subtle hints of vanilla and butterscotch, it also over-mellowed it. Combined with the lack of perique (which adds both spice, complexity and duration), the result is a somewhat short finish that leaves the sweetness unsupported, fails to balance the natural alkalai present {read: slight tongue bite}, and leaves the caramel topping looking like a half-hearted corrective tweak. It’s still a very good flake that many aro fans clearly enjoy, but for me "good" falls well short of "great", and the result is a pleasantly sweet, if unspectacular, smoke that doesn’t make me fight the urge to puff faster and order more.

Personally, I might have taken this flake in a slightly different direction. The easy choice would have been to add some perique to round out and prolong the finish, but that would be redundant with the LBF and LNF in the PS lineup. Instead, I would have lessened the caramel and perhaps tried adding a little Turkish leaf, for a hint of spicy complexity, a whisper of smoke, and a much longer finish. In fact, I’ll probably blend the remainder of my 1 oz sample with some Samsun, to test that out.

3 stars, less 1/2 star for a short unbalanced finish, leaves 2 1/2 stars. Add the half star back if you like aromatics.